The 13 suspects, including a minor, claimed during the trial that they had committed the murders in the name of honor. The judges handed down life sentences without parole to six of the suspects. One of the suspects was sentenced to 15 years for possession of firearms in his house. The minor was given 44 consecutive 15-year sentences. As the ruling came late in the evening, information on the sentences of some of the other suspects in the trial was not immediately available. The prosecution demanded 44 life sentences without the possibility of parole on 36 counts of “premeditated murder and manslaughter,” seven counts of the murder of children and one count of killing a woman whose pregnancy was obvious for nine of the suspects.
The suspects are currently jailed at the Çorum L-Type High Security Prison. The trial was closed to the media, as stipulated by law in cases where one or more of the suspects are minors. The attack were carried out by armed assailants on civilians during an engagement ceremony in Bilge on May 4, 2009, and resulted in the deaths of 44 people. Two others were injured. Sixteen of the victims were women and seven children. Three of the women were pregnant.
The vicious attack reportedly stemmed from an interfamily dispute over the bride. Some sources, however, have claimed that a land dispute was behind the attack, one of the worst involving civilians in Turkey’s recent history.
As all of the males residing in the village are village guards, there were claims that the assailants had used weapons that were given to them by the state to protect their village against terrorist attacks, causing a renewed uproar over the village guard system.
